In a previous career...

I worked in the stock photo industry. I started as a photo assistant, became a studio manager, and throughout I was a photographer. The stock industry is a little backward, that instead of a client coming to you with a photographic need that you create, you create photos that you then sell to clients. So when you are creating them you don't always know they will sell, so you spend a lot of time looking at photos that do sell, to create similar things in the future.

For instance, we sold many more images of mountain bikers carrying their bikes, than riding their bikes. I don't know why, but apparently that is what people think mountain biking is. Like this:

Yesterday I was reading an article online about 20 places to go before you die. I came across this photo.

This must be what current stock photographers think Kayak camping is like. There are a few problems with this. The photo is too low res for me to tell what they are doing by the waters edge, but I think they are supposed to be cooking dinner. Why would you cook dinner there? The guy on the right is about to fall in the water. I can only assume that they are staying the night, because their tent is set up, and so I have to comment on a few other things. The boats should be hire than the tent, and tied to something. The tent doesn't look like it is set up on a durable surface. As a photographer I know that this photo works very well. It is nicely balanced, it follows the rule of thirds, the boats create a nice diagonal line to the tent which draws the eye to the tent. But it is very unrealistic. As is this:

This one is a little harder to see, but it is a very similar camp site. The boats are at the water line, the tent should be back in the trees so it doesn't get pounded by wind. If you want to see what a good campsite looks like, all you have to do is go here.